3 stars

This is an adult fantasy romance, with multiple perspectives. It has fated mate and age gap tropes. The first fifty pages of this book were rough, that story was rushed to get all the information in and to get to a certain part in the story so the pace, flow of the story was not working for me. I am glad I pushed through because things settled down. The pacing and writing really came together and I really started enjoying this underwater world. The romance was ok, it's fated mates so feels a little insta love so things developed quickly.
There was a very repetitive feel to several events in this book especially related to conflicts and romance, after this happened a couple times I was rushing through it.
I liked the magic, setting, and the political atmosphere in this book was tense. Overall, I liked the plot and the direction that this new series is taking, and I am hoping the next book steps up and really wows me. I would still recommend this book.
I received an advanced ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

Despite the fact that it was a really easy book to get into, I decided to DNF it. When I was at the 21% marker, I already felt like that this could go either way and there were already quite a few signs to me personally, that had me feel like this book could become a DNF but I really wanted to give it some more time because it definitely had some really likeable romantasy elements present.

In theory this book is everything I love to read about when it comes to romantasy, with the Fae present and the Atlantis setting. I liked how the author gave her on spin on things, have to say that. This was ultimately the thing that had me wanting to continue.

But I just wasn’t able to remain excited because the characters behaviorisms and development just remained too superficial to me, a lot of things didn’t really make sense to me and were too easy and quick and I just lost interest along the way I guess. This happens sometimes to any reader I think and I always find it a shame, but I’m also a reader who isn’t into ‘pushing’ to finish a book just to finish it. So at 59% I decided to leave this story as it is. This goes with mixed feelings, because I really wanted this to be a strong, badass and well developed first book in a new to me romantasy series.

But it might be exactly that to other readers of course, so as always when I DNF I also suggest to other readers to really pick it up if it’s something you’re interested about because reading a book is such a personal experience and what might not be suitable for me, might just be your next new favorite read!

<I>Since I didn’t finish the book, I normally don’t rate it because I don’t think it’s fare to appoint a specific number of stars when I haven’t read the entire story. But since I NEED to give a star rating over here on Netgalley, I appointed it 2 stars.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an e-arc of this book, in exchange for an honest review. I'm really sorry and sad that this time around it didn’t work out for me the way I hoped this book would be. </i>

It’s an intriguing new take on Romantasy with its Atlantis setting meets modern world. What irks me about this is how our FMC is set to do this whole training/study montage to learn how to literally rule a queendom but instead it’s all about her insta-mate, taking breaks, and making mistakes. And villain number one who never gets reported or even a slap on the wrist? Come on. For a debut novel I was impressed, and will read book 2.

Good read, one of those couldn’t put it down! On that note I hated it was a cliff hanger! I loved the Atlantis aspect and the fight for the throne. Kind of a female version of Aquaman, but with some hot scenes and more suspense!
lol unlike Aquaman this is not for the under 18 age group!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you for allowing me to review

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞: 🌶️🌶️
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: S.T. Fernandez
𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 508
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: July 23, 2024

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭
🌊𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢 𝚁𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎
🌊𝙰𝚝𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚜 𝚁𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐
🌊𝙱𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚜
🌊𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚢
🌊𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚜 𝚛𝚞𝚕𝚎
🌊𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚢
🌊𝙵𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜
🌊𝙴𝚕𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝙵𝚊𝚎

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬
ᴀᴛᴛᴇᴍᴘᴛᴇᴅ ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀ
ʙᴜʟʟʏɪɴɢ
ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ
ᴅᴇᴄᴀᴘɪᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ
ᴅᴇᴘʀᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴ
ɢᴏʀᴇ
ɢʀɪᴇꜰ (ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛ, ꜱᴘᴏᴜꜱᴇ)
ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴇxᴘʟᴏɪᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʙʏ ꜰᴀᴇ
ᴋɪᴅɴᴀᴘᴘɪɴɢ
ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀ
ᴘʜʏꜱɪᴄᴀʟ ᴀʙᴜꜱᴇ
ᴘʀᴏꜰᴀɴɪᴛʏ
ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟ ᴀꜱꜱᴀᴜʟᴛ
ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟʟʏ ᴇxᴘʟɪᴄɪᴛ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇꜱ
ᴛᴏʀᴛᴜʀᴇ
ᴠɪᴏʟᴇɴᴄᴇ

𝐈 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 when I saw the tropes for this book and one of them was Atlantis retelling? Yes, please!

𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐫 is a marine biologist who was just living her normal and quiet life until her mother, Neleah is murdered and her whole world gets turned upside down. She finds out who she really is, secrets are revealed and she goes to a place where she thought was only a myth.

𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐯𝐲𝐧 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧 is the Commander of the Guardians and let’s just say their connection is fire. I loved their romance in this story, there were some moments where I wish there was a little more but overall it was a good blend between romance, tension and banter.

𝐒.𝐓. 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐳 wrote this world that I could clearly picture in my mind. There’s power struggles, Elemental Fae, mystical creatures in this beautiful underwater city that is brought to life with vivid and beautiful descriptions. I never wanted to leave.

The Veiled Heir is the first book that I have read by S. T. Fernandez and it certainly won’t be the last. This story is the perfect blend of fantasy and romance. Asherah thinks she is just a human, but she will soon find out that she was just raised as a human to protect her life and the lives of so many others that will depend on her in the future. You see she is water fae and not just any water fae she is the future Queen of Atlantis. But within minutes of receiving that bombshell her mother is murdered and she is whisked away to an unfamiliar world. I loved Asherah and Draevyn’s characters and found the story line very different and interesting from others that I have read. It grabbed me from the very beginning.
The author really created a fascinating world, full of well developed characters that you will love to love or love to hate. The Veiled Heir does end in a cliffhanger, so you will be waiting for a while to find out what happens next. For warning it does have violence and some steamy sex scenes.

Absolutely loved this magical lost Atlantis/water fae story. I really really enjoy when stories have people from the human world end up in other worlds, it always makes for some fun and intriguing story lines. I also really liked the dynamic between the main characters and their journey with everything (ie-a lot) going on. Lastly, I will most definitely be picking up the next book in the series as soon as I can.

Thank you to Azalea Press and S. T. Fernandez for giving me a digital arc of The Veiled Heir in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Veiled Heir is a romantasy featuring a secret fae heir living as a human who discovers her royal status upon the murder of her mother plunging her into danger, daunting task of saving her kingdom and humanity from the Fae who seek to destroy the human race. S. T. Fernandez writes an interesting reimagining of Atlantis as an underworld full of water fae and sea creatures, with an inclusive and diverse cast of characters – the premise was intriguing and full of a twisty plot.

The romance was a little insta-love and was lost in the vast number of subplot elements ongoing in the story. There is a massive age gap between the main characters Ash and Draevyn, which might not be everyone’s taste. It may bother some readers.

A creative and dramatic retelling of the Alantis myth with elemental fae and complicated political power dynamic between the elemental queendoms of the fae.

I tried here, I really did. But I'm only at 45% and I just can't do it anymore. While I really like the male warriors here, I absolutely cannot stand Asherah. And seeing as how she's the main character, that's a problem. She's just so goddamn annoying and can't stick to a decision to save her life. I'm already half way thru the book and she has already gone back and forth between deciding to be the queen she was meant to be, one her mother would be proud of....to wallowing in despair in bed for days, and clinging to her human ideals instead of her fae side because it's more comfortable. REPEATEDLY. I can see how this could happen at the start because she had her whole world ripped apart and found out she was more than she thought. But usually when somebody makes a decision to do something, they don't completely renege on it within hours. Over and over again. I grew so very tired of her.

While I doubt I would have read more in this series, if not for Asherah I probably would have enjoyed this one and at least finished it. She was raised as a human until one night her world shatters. She looses her mother and finds out that she is a princess of Atlantis. And as if that's not enough, the council that she's supposed to rule over with is trying to overthrow her power and take over. Now in order to claim her rightful place she has to work harder and study more than anyone else because she's on a short deadline to prove herself. But you wouldn't know this deadline is looming by the way she acts, that's for sure. Since the moment he laid eyes on her, Draevyn has felt this need to be by Asherah's side. So despite his rank in their army, he insists on being her personal guard. And of course, Asherah feels the same draw. So we get a lot of them flirting. And good lord do we get told about his green eyes over and over and over AND OVER again. It's obvious what these two are to each other in this world, and it's obvious what Asherah's role will be in the future what with this prophecy we keep hearing about. But I just don't care. I have too many other books to read instead of forcing myself to read this one and only getting frustration out of it.

Words cannot describe how invested I was with this story! I loved the love story between Ash and Drae! I loved the tension and angst among some of the other characters. I just loved EVERYTHING!!!

Will Ash take her rightful place as Queen of Atlantis or will the evil forces at work be her undoing and the undoing of everyone in the realm and beyond?

This Atlantis retelling has amazing world building, a unique magic system with elemental abilities, great main characters, side characters you’ll enjoy and an intriguing plot. I’ve always enjoyed underwater fantasy storylines,and scratched those vibes for me. The Veiled Heir follows a young woman raised in the Florida Keys who discovers she is a water fae and the heir of the secret underwater queendom of Atlantis. While fighting to keep her throne she has the daunting task of saving humanity.

Things I enjoyed about this book 📚
🧜🏽‍♂️Atlantis retelling
🦈Hidden identity
🔱 Chosen one
🐠He falls first
🌊 Fated mates
🧜‍♀️ Found family
🌊Spicy 🥵 (mmc dirty mouth)
🧜🏽‍♂️Elemental fae
🦈Bodyguard trope
🔱Slow burn 🔥
🐠Political Intrigue

The Veiled Heir is the epitome of summer vibes for fantasy readers.

I would definitely love this as an audiobook.

Thank you @NetGalley and Azalea Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC of The Veiled Heir in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.**
☆Review is posted on Goodreads as of 8/6/2024.☆

3.8⭐️ rounded to 4⭐️
3🌶


Oof, where to start.
Firstly, the premise is very interesting! This story gets ATLA-like elemental powers and kingdoms, and the world building and lore is wonderful. At times, it did feel a little long winded, but overall I enjoyed it.

Things I liked:
▪︎fated mates
▪︎elemental kingdoms
▪︎romance

Things that could have been better:
▪︎certain words for things...like cock pocket 🫠
▪︎Ash's awareness
▪︎how fast the ending came

Overall, I enjoyed the story and will probably read the next one when the time comes!

Fantasy romance with fae at it's best! I love the underwater setting and water fae magic - what a new and unique take on this genre and it was so fun! Recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book has intrigued me for awhile just based on the cover. Asherah and Draevyn had great chemistry. I think this was a great opener for a fantasy series and I can't wait to see where the author takes the story and characters.

I enjoyed the world and learning about it along with Asherah. The magic training scenes were so much fun and the found family was adorable. The plot is really where this book shined!

The book was long so the romance could have used a little more slow burn. Draevyn is a supportive king, but his dirty talk was a little much. The romance didn't feel as believable as I wanted it to in the beginning.

The cliffhanger and set up for future books was masterful. I will continue with the series and I hope an audiobook will be available by then. It would be a fun graphic or full cast audio.

Read this if you like:
Mermaids and fae
Atlantis reimagined
Bodyguard romance
Spice 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥
Unique world building

Check the trigger warnings, which the author includes at the beginning of the book. I love it when authors do that. It's available on Kindle Unlimited!

I enjoyed this book a lot. The writing was well done and it was a quick read. The story line was very well done. I would highly recommend this book!

2.5 ⭐

This book is a curious mix of intriguing potential and missed opportunities. The underwater world is vividly described and quite interesting, but the excessive detail bogs down the early chapters. While the insta-love is entertaining, it feels rushed, and the main character's decision-making leaves much to be desired. The villain is frustratingly effective despite being extremely pathetic. The writing improves as the story progresses and the spice increases (by a lot 🌶️), but a tighter edit could have transformed this into a much more compelling read.

Asherah grew up in Key West and will soon leave to kick of her career as marine biologist. That was her plan but all is changing one evening when strange men are fallowing her home and she must learn nothing is as it seemed.
Her mom is a queen and she is the heir of Atlantis and to make sure she is save she is brought into the queendom. Her mom Neleah´s is assassinated which means Asherah or Ash is not the heir any longer, now she must prepare to become the new queen of Atlantis. This means she must learn all about being a water fae, the laws and rituals and also Atlanits must get used to the new that the heir was kept from them for some time. Also this means from now on Ash is needing protection as it is not clear how it was possible to kill her mom. The commander of the guards, Draevy Eliron, who secretly was aware that an heir was born, is the one offering to be in charge for her safety from now on.


This is the start of a new series but be aware that beside being a fantasy book we also have here chemistry between different people, sexual encounters but as well murder, bullying, abuse, trying to kill people and physically harm. So this series might not be for everybody the right book to read.

I really like the writing of the author. I really like how she build this world. We start in Key West with being with humans, Ash growing up as human and then we are taken into the world of Atlantis. I think this underwater world is really good described as well as why humans are unaware of it. Together with Ash we learn all about this world.
Asherhah is for me a really good character. You really feel with her right from the start. It is quite a lot happening to her and in such a short time frame, she must take over a whole new lot of responsibilities and needs to learn so much new for her.
Draevy I fell from him right form the start. His ethics, the way he is behaving and to learn during this book more about his past war really good written.
The chemistry between Ash and Drae is for me really good written and I liked how their feelings for each other are building and changing in this book.
The idea that fae rule over different types of magic like water, fire, air and earth and each is living in its own queendome is interesting. Also that humans live with them and how differently fae treat humans is a nice plot to the story.
So for me a really nice start into a new series, even so the end left me gaping as I did not understand how this could happen (I assume as we are still no aware of all the rules in Atlantis) and I wonder how this can be steered into the right direction again.

Who is looking for a new fantasy series with a nice plot, lots of action and where dark trigger points can be in, a love story, change for species for either the good or the bad (depending which fae side will win) and an underwater setting in Atlantis should try this out.

Asherah, marine biologist and all around lover of water, was about to fly the coop and start a new life in California. But before she can move her home is invaded, her family ends up on the run and she learns that her entire life has been a lie.

After her initial traumatic entry to the world of Atlantis, Asherah now has to dodge political bullets, learn all about her true home and learn to be queen. All whilst trying to avoid the intense attraction to her guard, Draevyn.

Draevyn is the epitome of the older man, centuries older! Draevyn is the perfect blend of protective and supportive partner. I loved watching him and Ash try and sidestep the mutual attraction.

Ash soaks up all the information she can on Atlantis and is willing to do things to shake up the old ways, but some of her so-called ministers have their own agendas and it's a twisty tale to unravel.

The story was all the things I want in a fantasy; gender and LQBTQIA positive and representative, mental health is addressed and made a priority.

My only ick was the whole #CP# thing, when you read it you'll get it. That was my only quibble really. There was enough world building to interest me without overloading me, and whilst the romance was kind of Insta-love, the spicy was slow-burn and then intense!

I am completely hooked and can't wait for book 2.

The Veiled Heir follows a young woman raised in the Florida Keys who discovers she is a water fae and the heir of the secret underwater queendom of Atlantis. We watch as she learns about the fae realms, practices her water powers, and find love and friendship in Atlantis, all while battling a faction of fae who do not believe she should be the heir and are actively trying to dethrone or kill her.

The premise of this book is fun and it definitely has its shining moments, such as the relationship between Ash and her father and the friendships she forms is Atlantis. Unfortunately, there were a lot of errors in the writing that left me distracted, and I also was not interested in the insta-love that occurred in the story. I also found that Ash put herself in bad situations by not reporting incidents and having others punished for their treatment of her. Some of the conflict just seemed to be poorly explained because of this.

This is a fun book, but not a super well-written book. I would still recommend it to anyone looking for more underwater fantasy stories and if you enjoy insta-love and destined mates.

Thank you to Azalea Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my review.